Targets and Traitors
by 7ShadowsUnleashed
Summary: Neji, Naruto, Tenten, and Menma, the ninja boy of unknown origin, are on a mission to retrieve Menma's lost memories, but the team is in for more than they bargained for: Neji Hyūga, mission leader, is the target for a rapidly-approaching assassination. Rated "T" for chapters to come. No pairings.
1. Prelude: A Quest for Memories

Okay, this idea has been bouncing in my head at night, refusing to let me sleep [it is quite cruel in that respect]. Hopefully writing it down for you to read will earn me a few extra minutes to sleep, and entertain you for however long you read.

This story takes place during the Menma Arc: one of the fillers from the original _Naruto _series. The arc is centred around Menma, an amnesiac boy Naruto pulled out of a river one day on a hunt for bamboo shoots for Ichiraku. For this story, I am using some of the characters and the general situation only. The rest is a product of my imagination.

Remember, reviews are always welcomed.

I do not own the _Naruto_ franchise: it belongs to Kishimoto Masashi and associates. I do, however, own this storyline and the other characters clearly created by me.

**Æ**

His feet scuffed slightly as he pushed off, jumping high and far to reach the next branch. His landing was hindered by the exhaustion he felt, his left ankle turning inwards to the point that he gasped quietly in pain, but that was no matter. He could not cave to exhaustion when he was the mission leader: everything was riding on his abilities.

He pushed the exhaustion to the back of his mind, but he could not force the nagging fear that gripped him away in the same manner. He waved his team towards him, "We'll stop here for a while."

"What do you mean 'we'll stop here?' " a particularly-annoying blond-haired shinobi scoffed. He gestured to the pale, dust-haired boy beside him with one thumb. "We came to find Menma's memories. We can't stop now."

Neji groaned inwardly but, on the outside, his façade remained a stoic mask of calm and calculation. "If we rest now we can be on the move again before first light. So long as that information you got is correct, that would put us at our first town by midday, when all of the workers break to eat and stay out of the sun." He hated explaining things, rationalising away his inability to continue.

"Neji's right, Naruto." The final member of his team, the mousy-haired kunoichi named Tenten, said.

Thank God for Tenten.

He couldn't leave her to stand alone, especially when she had defended him. Stepping up beside her, he spoke in cool warning tones. "We will stay here tonight, get some rest, and continue in before the sun's up."

The mission could not have come at a worse time. Ever since that infernal letter had arrived, Neji had not been sleeping well. Tossing and turning in his bed at night waiting for a kunai knife between his ribs, a poisonous cloud to permeate slowly through the air, or the sudden shock of cold hands wrapped tightly around his neck, a learing face watching until his lips turned blue and his curse seal faded. The letter had not been too specific about how he was to die, simply stating in its delicate, precise penmanship that he was to die.

Neji still could not get the words out of his mind, even here, surrounded by his peers, he shook under his blankets almost as much as he had sleeping alone in his room waiting for the creaking floorboards, death bells ringing slowly in his mind.

He woke before the others, his sleep disturbed by branches cracking just beyond the circle of dying firelight. Springing up into a seated position at the sharp crack, he looked around, snapping his head from side to side. Summoning his byakugan, he saw a doe leading two small fawns through the underbrush.

_If whoever sent me the letter doesn't get me, I'll die from the stress._ He fell back into his blankets, trying to catch the last few traces of sleep, but his mind had locked them away. He lay quietly gasping, hoping he didn't wake him teammates with his sudden scramble to see what lurked around him.

A quick glance over each sleeping face. _Good_, he thought.

Neji knew he would not sleep again that night. The moon was barely halfway across the sky but his heart throbbed too much for him to relax. He folded his blankets and sat beside the fire, staring into the night with his byakugan.

.:.

Tenten woke to see Neji feeding more twigs to the fire. His eyes bore the same hollow look she had noticed yesterday when he suggested they stop: all of the white light his eyes once reflected had drained out of them, leaving the lifeless look of white paper left out in the rain, darkened to grey by the water.

"Tenten, why are you up." He hadn't even looked at her before asking.

_He must be using his byakugan_, Tenten realised. _I wonder what scared him into using it?_

She sat up and placed her hands down on either side of her body for support. Shaking her head a bit to clear the sleep-fog, she replied, "I must have slept enough."

Neji turned to her. The sleepless shadows made his eyes look like they were buried deeper in his head. "You sure nothing woke you?" He asked, his expression softening slightly. If he was anyone else, he would have grinned at her, but he was Neji, the stoic, stone-faced Hyūga genius.

Tenten grinned in return, trying to weasel a smile out of her teammate before Naruto and Menma woke. "Of course."

" 'Of course' what? Hey, what's goin' on? Isn't someone going to explain to me?" Naruto shot up, kicking his blankets off and leaping across the clearing to stare Tenten down. "What were you talking about?" he asked in a childish voice, enunciating the words syllable-by-syllable.

She pushed him away with one hand, using the other to hold the edge of her blanket over her nose in an attempt to block the stench. "Your breath stinks. Go brush your teeth while I wake Menma."

"Hey, who made you leader?" Naruto cried indignantly.

Tenten looked to Neji for backup, but he was staring into the flames. The veins around his eyes remained pronounced, but she wouldn't be able to ask him why until they stopped again. She knew that Naruto hadn't noticed, being too busy hopping and trying to kill the rest of the team with his putrid breath, but she was pretty sure Menma was awake. Whatever the reason for Neji activating his byakugan, it had obviously been nothing.

For the third time in as many days, Neji was jumping at shadows and, until she knew why, Tenten wasn't going to bring it up in front of the others.

"Just do it," Neji said. His voice sounded somewhat detached, like his mind was somewhere else. "The sooner we leave, the sooner we return to civilisation and begin asking villagers if they know about Menma."

Naruto walked into the trees with a _harrumph_ of displeasure, but at least he could see Neji's logic: that had to count for something. She was still staring at the place Naruto had abandoned when something heavy but soft hit her in the back of the head. It was Neji's black and white sling bag. "Put you stuff in here," he said. "I'll carry it today."

"But …"

"Just do it, Tenten." He turned away from her. "You should get Menma. I'll find the food, I think Naruto has it, and see if there's anything that tastes fine warmed." Tenten knew Neji ate warm things when he was tired; he must have been awake all night. As she watched him push himself up, wincing like he was in pain, she decided she would be asking him at the nearest opportunity.

Resolve in place, Tenten folded her blankets, stowing them in Neji's sling bag, and left to wake Menma.

.:.

Shadows into the bare traces of moonlight and sunlight mingling together under one sky. High and far from the earth, they raced across the curled fingers of sleeping giants. Five shadows far and one shadow behind. Turning its head, red eyes reflecting to silver light cast by the moon's shadow, it stood still for a single moment, the world turning in constant rhythm around it, before it vanished.

Sudden: the eyes were there.

Staring: the eyes were gone.

All that remained were five moving shadows, the world turning around them, and winds of change blowing their hair back from bright eyes peering eagerly ahead.

_Too eagerly_, the hunter thinks, _but for now I can let them run ahead._

**Æ**

Okay, that was a somewhat slow start, but trust me when I say it will pick up C-major next chapter.

[Reads words, horrified green-eyed gaze, stuffs possessed-puppet-musician-clone into a box, sits on lid to keep it from rattling]

Remember, reviews are always so very, very welcome. I love to hear from you, the reader, whatever your opinion of my story is. Tell me if I made Naruto annoying enough, if I managed to keep Tenten in character, who you think the shadow is and if it's benevolent or malevolent, who do you think wrote the death note to Neji, or whatever else you can think of.

[To those who review: I am bowing to you through my computer, green eyes full of thanks.]

Next chapter is coming soon. If you are coming from my other story, "The Sasuke Retrieval Arc: One is Lost," I promise the next chapter will be up by the seventh of January, and the third chapter is already being written [promises to be a longer one].

-7ShadowsUnleashed out; off to write more fan-fiction for you [and possibly do her trig homework]

PS: Heh, death note ... not to be confused with _Death Note_.


	2. First Day: Day of Shattered Bones

Sorry about the long wait but I had exams and all of the other fun end-of-semester stuff to deal with. Anyway, now I am back and all of my stories will be updated. With that, welcome to chapter two of "Targets and Traitors."

I do not own the _Naruto_ franchise: it belongs to Kishimoto Masashi and associates. I do, however, own this storyline and the other characters clearly created by me [i.e. the shadow].

Æ

Something moved slowly under the moonlight, following the swiftly-moving shinobi team from a distance. It did not want to be seen, heard, or known until it had taken the time to plan its next move.

According to the letter the shadow assassin received, it has today, tomorrow, and the day after that to kill its target: a fourteen year old Hyūga Can branch family genius by the name of Neji Hyūga. Not that the name mattered then: the shadow assassin would not call the boy by his name until the moment before it delivered the final blow. For now this Neji Hyūga is simply "the target."

"_Three days to kill_," the letter said. "_You have three days to kill the boy with the byakugan. His name is Neji Hyūga and he is a danger to the Hyūga family. I trust three days will be enough time for you to complete your services and we need not discuss the consequences of failure. I have enclosed half of the money now and the other half will be delivered on the day of Neji's funeral …" _

The shadow assassin was amused by the letter's multiple tones, flitting between that of a concerned family member and an external party.

_It seems that either the family wants him dead or someone has a great deal riding on this family's survival_, the shadow mused.

Death at the hands of relatives or not, the shadow had little interest in the affairs of humans. The money was unnecessary as it counted for nothing in the shadow's world, all the shadow wanted was death.

It saw the target slip and fall backwards off of a slippery, dew-laden tree branch. For a moment, it held its breath, claws digging deeper into the tree branch it crouched on as it watched the target. Should the boy die here, the shadow's mission would be incomplete.

_Should I catch him_,the black-robed figure wondered, _or should I let him fall? _It never got to make the decision because the strange boy with fluffed, dusty-coloured hair and no forehead protector darted in and caught the target before he hit the ground.

The shadow smiled a pointed, wolfish grin before reaching for one of the knives on its belt. _I have three days to kill him. I suppose I can have some fun with the team; they'll be dead by the end of this anyway. _

The shadowy assassin rearranged its hooded cloak with a surprising degree of vanity: straightening tassels and carefully arranging the cowl to cover its face, and darted back into the shadow.

.:.

Neji sat on the edge of a rock grimacing in pain as Tenten splinted his ankle with tightly wrapped white bandages. Her hands moved fast, deftly tying knots over the top of his foot and up to his knee. He was sure that a metre and a half of bandages was a bit excessive, but was not going to fight the kunoichi: she knew more about first aid than he did, having gone through the additional kunoichi training at the academy.

"How's that?" Tenten pressed her hands up against the sole of his foot, making the muscles and tendons contract.

Neji gritted his teeth. "I think it's okay."

Tenten gave him a stare and took another roll of bandages. "If you're going to lie to someone, don't even bother trying with me. I know you too well." She took Neji's bandaged leg and turned it gently. "That being said, I don't want to add another layer of bandages. Try walking on it." She lent him her shoulder for support as he climbed off of his improvised chair. Leaning heavily against her shoulder, Neji attempted a step and fell to his knees, wincing.

Tenten knelt beside him. "You really managed to break you ankle in that last slip, didn't you?" Neji did not respond, but she must have read the pain in his face. "I'll find Naruto and Menma: we're taking you back to Konoha."

Neji leaned limply against her shoulder, too tired to fight and too rational to remind her that he was the mission's leader.

.:.

Tenten half-carried, half-dragged Neji's limp, unresponsive body to the rock they had previously used as a chair. Leaving her exhausted team-mate lying in the monolith's shadow, she tried to remember what Neji had told the hyperactive blond and the quiet, dusty-haired unknown-nin to do while Tenten splinted Neji's then-thought-to-be-sprained ankle.

_I think he told them to refill the canteens_, she thought. Turning back to ask the stoic Hyūga where she could find the two boys, she stopped in her tracks and screamed.

.:.

Naruto had just stoppered the last canteen when he heard Tenten's scream. It was so sudden, shrill and so … purely unlike everything he knew about Team Guy's brave weapon's mistress that he found himself looking over to Menma to confirm the sound's existence. Menma had frozen at the sound, his eyes wide with something between fear and bewilderment, but then he shook himself and sprang into action. Dropping the canteens cradled in his arms onto the sandy riverbank, Menma grabbed Naruto's arm and dragged him towards the sound.

"Why are you wasting your time waiting for me to say 'run?' " Menma said indignantly. "Some team-mate you are. I don't know Tenten very well, but it sounds like she's in trouble."

"Well, sorry," Naruto pulled his arm out of Menma's grip so both of them could run faster, "but Tenten doesn't scream."

They dodged through the trees, leaving trampled under brush in their wake. Naruto's hands were clenched into fists. _What could make Tenten scream? _he wondered. Drawing upon his chakra, Naruto sprinted ahead, now neck-to-neck with the swift unknown-nin. In minutes they broke the edge of the clearing and skidded to a stop, mouths wide with mirrored looks of surprise.

.:.

The shadow assassin could not pass up the opportunity. The moment the girl turned her scroll-laden back to the target, the shadow leaped down, knives already clasped in slender hands. They were not shoddy, mass-produced iron kunai blades either. No, the shadow assassin wielded two slender battle knives, hand-forged and honed to an edge as sharp as the biting winter wind. It was as the assassin brought the blades down that the target's mousey-haired team-mate turned, her mouth open to speak, but screamed in pure horror instead.

The girl stopped screaming almost as suddenly as she had turned, but the shadow assassin knew it was enough to bring the two boys back.

_I cannot let today slip away_, the assassin would have to accomplish its task quickly or let the first of its appointed three days slip away. _I have other things to do._

.:.

Naruto grabbed a kunai from the pouch on his belt. "Menma, that weird cloaked thing's going to kill Neji. C'mon!"

Menma nodded, racing forward. "If we can manage it, we should immobilise him. Are you with us, Tenten?" he asked, looking back at the kunoichi.

Having recovered her poise in lieu of the imminent tragedy, Tenten nodded, smiling her signature 'affirmative' as she reached for the scroll tied over her back. "I'm right behind you." The scroll unrolled as she drew it out, spinning around her like the slender ribbon on the end of a baton. "Let's get this started."

The shinobi trio sprang into action.

.:.

They were everywhere at once: weapons high, weapons low, light flashing through the trees, reflected by the spinning knives as they buried themselves in tree limbs or fell to the ground uselessly. Kicks and punches were thrown towards the shadow assassin's face but none of the haphazard blows met their mark: they were either blocked or dodged with ease.

_Why do they fight me? Don't they see that I have their friend's life in the palm of my hand? If I wish to, I can kill him in an instant._ The assassin grabs the target by his long dark hair, pulling the limp boy to his knees like a puppet controlled from behind by its master, and placing a cool silver blade over the boy's pale throat.

"If you don't stop I will finish him here and now." Its voice is cool and clear like snow melt. The target's shinobi team instantaneously stopped their assault.

_Well, at least they are not stupid enough to push me._

"He is half-dead already. Can you not see that much? His body is run-down because he does not sleep. I can get rid of him for you; your mission will finish faster without this inept boy as your leader."

The blond boy scratched his head with the back of his kunai's hilt. "Now look here, I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'm not going to let you kill Neji. If anyone gets to kill him, it's me."

The assassin is thrown back by the venom in the blonde's blue eyes. _He wants to kill his own team-mate? What's wrong with this stupid, stupid boy? _With a hand tightly wound into the target's hair, it is nothing for the shadow assassin to snap the target's head back …

There are cold hands clasped tightly around on the shadow assassin's hands. _The boys: when did they grab me?_ Heavy weight rests on one narrow shoulder and cold metal was expertly manoeuvred inside the cowl of the shadow's hood so it rests under a delicately-curved jaw. _Heh, _the shadow wanted to laugh at its own sloppiness but the kunai is in the way. _The girl is attacking from behind ..._

The blond boy with bright blue eyes pushed on the hollow of the assassin's wrist and the silver knife fell blade-first into the dirt. "Are you deaf?" he shouted. "I told you to leave Neji alone."

"As if you were doing such a good job of taking care of him," the assassin snarled. "It's a surprise that, with three of you and only one of me, none of you checked on _Neji_," The name is spat with hatred. "to see if he was alive."

The cold kunai at the assassin's neck is pressed deeper, drawing a single bead of blood at its tip, but the assassin feels little concern about the blade. The blond-haired boy's grip on the assassin's left hand has somewhat slackened, as if the ninja considered the shadow assassin less dangerous without the silver knife clasped in one long, slender hand.

_It's his funeral_, the assassin thought before it violently twisted its wrist out of the blond-haired boy's grip and kicked him, gasping, to the ground.

"Tenten, now!" the boy called, struggling to back to his feet. The assassin barely had time to realise what a perilous mistake it made when the kunai pressed against its pale neck buries itself into one narrow, black-cloaked shoulder.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid … why did I move on the boy first and not the girl with the knife? They planned this, or so the blond boy wants me to believe, but he was stunned when he saw me move, so he must have expected me to attack the girl instead of him … _

.:.

"Augh!" the assassin screamed with its snow melt-cool voice now laden with undertones of pain. It was a terrible sound: both liquid-cool and constricted by pure pain and agony. "What is with this wound? Why does it hurt so much? I …" The assassin pressed a hand to its chest, gasping for breath, the vigour to scream gone. All that remained were traces of the cool snow melt tones.

"I cannot breathe … was there poison on that blade ... girl?" The assassin was on its knees, leaning on one arm as it tore at the black fabric of its cloak with the other clawed hand.

Naruto watched the strange black-robed creature, Neji's would-be assassin, with wide blue eyes. The scream still echoed in his mind, reverberating up and down the inner workings of his ears as he turned to Tenten, who had long since run to Neji's side and now held his body up against her chest, studying his pale face with concerned chocolate eyes.

"What was on that knife?" Naruto whispered.

"Nothing, I swear." The weapon's expert was just as mystified by the assassin's reaction as her blond-haired team-mate.

Menma knelt beside the motionless assassin, who laid face-down, hands still clenched in its cloak, the dust forced into the air by its frantic, sporadic movements was beginning to settle on its black cloak, turning it an off-shade of grey.

"If it is as you say, Tenten, and there was nothing on that knife, then why would this person react the way they did?"

"Is it even a person?" Naruto asked. "Maybe it's something Orochimaru cooked up in one of his labs."

"But Orochimaru doesn't care for the byakugan." Tenten reminded her hyperactive blond teammate. She wrapped her arms tighter around Neji's body as if to shield his barely-beating heart from a forest full of black-cloaked figures with just her own slender frame. "He only wants the sharingan, and he already has Sasuke for that."

"I want to know who tried to do this," Menma said. His comrades turned to face him, their eyes gleaming with a sudden, insatiable hunger. Menma held the narrow body, half-turned and half still hidden.

"Well what are you waiting for," Naruto called. "Let's see what this demon looks like."

There was no use waiting. The dusty-haired ninja turned the assassin's body face-up and tipped the hood back.

Æ

Hello guys. I will be posting the next chapter in a few days [Monday at the latest], but I just want test something first, so will you take a little challenge from me?

**The Challenge:** I want you as the reader to tell me what you think the shadow assassin actually looks like. I already have a description [and much of the next chapter] written and it is not changing, but I want to know what you believe the assassin looks like so please write a review with your ideas, okay?

Even if you don't want to guess at the shadow assassin's appearance, please review and tell me what you think of this chapter [or burn me to ashes for being so late with the uploads. This is especially well-warranted if you read my other piece as well.].

Thanks for reading [and reviewing, if you did]; see you in a few days,

7ShadowsUnleased


	3. First Day: Mind Games

Hello everyone. I am sorry I am over twelve hours late with this post. My computer was throwing a hissy fit. Anyway, after much negotiation, we managed to rectify our differences and are all good now so onto the general warnings.

Disclaimer:_ Naruto_ belongs to Masashi Kishimoto [lucky fellow], the shadow assassin and this story line is mine [tell me if you like it or not].

Enjoy and please review.

Æ

Menma and Naruto crouched over the body. It had seemed like a massive, formidable force when they attacked it, but the shadow assassin was, in reality, quite small and almost innocent-seeming when incapacitated. Menma felt wrong to touch it. He hesitated, hand clasped around the cloaked figure's hood but making no move to remove the fabric.

"Well what are you waiting for?" Naruto demanded.

The moment's hesitation vanished. Menma gently tipped his enemy's hood back.

He was not sure what he had expected to see: maybe a twisted cadaver stitched together from a kaleidoscope of different skin tones taken from shinobi and common citizens alike, the strange and terrible combination topped off with lidless black eyes or something equally terrible. What the unknown-nin saw was surprisingly different, and, for a moment, Menma wished for the horrific creature from his imagination.

The hood fell back to reveal a delicately-sculpted face: cream skin, high cheekbones, and black-and white striped hair, slender black eyebrows sloping over large eyes, though at the moment they were closed tightly with pain, long black lashes forming a fence over the rims.

And cat ears. Menma almost missed the soft points protruding from the boy's patchwork hair, only noticing the black tips when Naruto pulled on them gently, causing the assassin to twitch in pain.

"Stop that," Menma whispered. "Are you really going to dishonour your defeated enemy that way?"

"Well forgive me," Naruto said in his usual obnoxious tone. "I was on a mission once with Sakura and our other team-mate; you've never met him and that's probably for the best: he's an annoying stuck-up ... anyway, I was on a mission and this old lady gave us cat ears: actually they were little pink and white cat ears on headbands, but they made ninja cats think we were cats as well. I just had to make sure that this guy's ears were real."

Menma had half the mind to smack his new friend, but his hands were otherwise occupied by the small, cat-eared assassin. That being said, he still growled, "Well, are they?"

"Of course they are!" Naruto sounded so indignant that Menma dropped the assassin's limp body onto the dusty ground, making its cloak even more grey than before.

"Well, now that that's out of the way, what do we do with him?" Menma asked, the last traces of laughter quickly dissolving from his voice.

"Him?" Naruto exclaimed. Menma was grateful his hands were free so he could stifle his laughter.

He was not the only one laughing either. Tenten had somehow managed to carry Neji, dead-weight he was, over to the clustered boys. Laying her younger team-mate beside her with a small sigh, she turned to the light-haired boys, particularly the bright-coloured blond. "You honestly thought he was a girl." She made a concerned clicking sound and waved a hand in front of Naruto's eyes. "Are you blind?"

Naruto turned away with a scoff. "Why do all of my enemies have to be boys that look like girls?"

"Why is it that whenever I get stuck with a combination team there's always an idiot?" Tenten shot back, her nerves frayed by her usually-reliable team-mate's injuries and the added problems of Menma and this shadow assassin. The stress was beginning to break the sturdy kunoichi: she needed someone else to take charge for once but there was no one to turn to.

Naruto could see the shattered glaze in Tenten's eyes. Taking a deep breath, he looked to his comrades sitting on either side of him, their backs rigid as they frantically assessed and created plans to combat the situation. "Here is what we're going to do: we are going to take Neji and this guy …" he pointed at the cat-eared assassin with his thumb, "back to Konoha. There is more to this than we can handle so let's just focus on taking Neji back to safety."

Menma and Tenten nodded slowly.

"All right then. Team, let's move out."

.:.

After a long debate, which was not the least bit civilised and resembled a fistfight rather than a debate, Naruto, the self-appointed team leader, left Tenten to watch Neji and the shadow assassin, now referred to as "Kitty-boy" for the sake of convenience, and figure out a means to transport the two boys home, while he and Menma retrieved the canteens they had dropped in their frantic scramble.

_It's hard to believe it was only half an hour ago that everything was at least semi-normal. Now this whole mission has been compromised and no one has any idea what to do. Then I had to go and make myself the leader, and I have no clue what to do to hold everyone together. At this rate we may not even make it back to the village in time to wrestle some information out of that assassin before he dies … _there was so much Naruto and the rest of his team needed to do: they needed someone to examine Neji and tell them why the Hyūga clan's prodigy was in a coma: all he had was a broken ankle, after all. If they could manage it, Kitty-boy needed to be looked at as well, though Naruto knew that the cat-eared assassin, whatever he was, could not be trusted to a doctor outside of Konoha. That fact would greatly complicate things when they planned their route.

So Naruto sat on a rock surrounded by water and his thoughts as he refilled canteen after canteen for the second time that day. Stoppering the full canteen in his hands before moving on to the last leather-wrapped canister lying empty on a rock, Naruto continued to rack his brain for a solution to the madness the seemingly-simple mission had become.

_There has to be a way to fix this._

Nothing came to him: not one miracle idea, but he was not the "number one unpredictable ninja" for nothing; he would not give up yet. Sighing, Naruto gathered the canteens around him, all filled and stoppered, and trudged back to the clearing with Menma at his heels.

.:.

_The world swirls in open pools around me. I am suspended from thin silver chains fixed to the cold, lifeless air. It was not always this way: the air used to blow softly, like a tree's cool, pure breath, but it prepares for death, my inner world, and there is little I can do about it._

_So here I dangle like a black- and white-patched stone pendant affixed to a chain by the thinnest of tear-drop fasteners. The slightest jostle and I fall into the darkness pooling below me, forever lost._

_For a failed mission, I can think of worse ways to go than at the hands of a girl fighting to save her friend._

_I only wish I knew what devilish poison she used on me. Pale-faced Orochimaru once told me I was built with a series of fail-safes to keep me in check. At the same time, the wretch told me not to worry because he "would never tell anyone how to ruin his favourite specimen."_

_Gah, I should have known better than to trust an immortality-seeking, obsessive-compulsive man with serpentine eyes lined with … heaven only knows what that purple stuff is. Maybe he should study it instead: I would bet my remaining time that it holds the secret to immortality._

_Never mind. I already swore to kill the target and the person who gave the kunoichi girl Orochimaru's "fail-safe."_

_Might as well tell her how to get us out of this mess. No one is allowed to kill the target before I do. Not even the blond-haired boy, blasted traitor. Especially not him._

.:.

The words that wormed their way out of Tenten's mind were not words a fourteen year old kunoichi should know.

Tenten did not care: she was content to continue swearing so long as no one could hear her …

_Shut up, you stupid girl. _

What happened to the privacy of her own mind?

She thought enough oaths to fill an intermediate-level dictionary.

_I told you to stop it._

Great, now she was going crazy. Tenten would kill Naruto when he came back, impromptu team leader or not, she would kill the blond shinobi.

_Use the bed rolls._

Where did that come from?

_If you open them up, you should be able to carry one of us in the spare if you hold it out between yourself and one of the other boys, and whoever is left over can be tied onto the remaining boy's back. That is part of the reason you were swearing, no? The boy told you to figure out a way to carry the injured. I am presenting you with a feasible solution that leaves no one short-changed._

_Why didn't I come up with that idea sooner? _Tenten wondered.

_Because you were too busy swearing._

Where ever the solution came from, Tenten was quite ashamed that she had not figured it out sooner. Granted she spent most of her time trying to forget the painful months she had invested in her dream of becoming a medical-nin like Hokage Tsunade, it was embarrassing to forget even how to make a simple stretcher.

The chocolate-haired kunoichi made a resolution to dig the medical texts out from the junk box she kept stashed under her bed and re-learn the first aid section.

Sighing happily, the kunoichi pulled out Neji's bedroll and, after laying it flat on the ground, carefully positioned Neji's slumbering body in the centre. She was about to fold the excess over her younger team-mate when the annoying voice in her mind decided its input was necessary.

_Is it really wise to put the trustworthy one the farthest away?_ There was something strange about that voice besides the fact that it spoke within her mind.

_Clear water tones_, her instincts told her, _Clear water … snowmelt … the assassin._

"_Get out of my head_," she screamed both mentally and physically.

.:.

Tenten was screaming again.

This time there was no discussion between Naruto and Menma, just a silent nod shared between them as their hands found the five canteens they were filling, clasping the straps in tight fists as they rose and ran to their team-mate.

.:.

Tenten was kneeling in the grass, rocking back and forth with her hands clasped around her head. She gave Naruto and Menma the slightest of glances before her eyes returned to the ground. It was the strangest thing Naruto had ever seen: Tenten, ever stable to compensate for her team-mates' unstable personas, was talking to … herself?

"I don't care. I told you to leave … Who are you? Who sent you? What is your business with him?"

"Who is she talking to?" Menma asked, gesturing towards the kunoichi.

"What? Do I look like a mind-reader or something? How should I know?"

"Naruto?"

Startled, Naruto turned towards Tenten. "What is it?"

"Wake Kitty-boy."

"What?" Naruto was aghast.

The kunoichi kept one hand pressed against her temple and pointed with the other. "You heard me: wake him." Her voice dripped with such menace that Naruto did not dare think of what strange thngs she could do to him if he disobeyed. There were some things and one just did not do and disobeying Team Gai's weapon's mistress was one of them.

Shaking on his feet, Naruto timidly stepped towards the assassin. _Why should we wake him? Unconscious people can't kill you …_ Having helped Menma carry the assassin away from the monolith clearing, Naruto knew what sort of weapons the assassin could use if he wished: claws, knives, fists. It was safer for everyone if Kitty-boy slept through the journey home.

Of course _he _was the one on his knees beside the lethal Orochimaru-level science experiment, trying to stir it out of its slumber. If Orochimaru had created Kitty-boy under the influence of Sasuke, then waking him up was not the best idea.

"You know," the blond-haired shinobi called. "I don't know what you want me to do here, but it would be nice if you could do this instead."

It took Naruto a moment to realise that Tenten was beside him. "What was that?" her voice dripped with annoyance and ice.

"Heh heh … nothing, nothing."

The kunoichi stepped away, satisfied.

_Whew, that was a close one._

Curling his hands around one bony shoulder, Naruto gently shook the assassin, ready to jump away at a moment's notice. "Look, I don't want to wake you either," he told the unconscious boy, "but I sort have no choice, okay?"

"I … see."

That voice: like icy water running down Naruto's spine. The blond shinobi, de-facto temporary mission leader, jumped back to hide behind Tenten and Menma as their enemy slowly stretched and pulled himself to his feet before them. Minds trapped between fear and awe, the trio was barely conscious as their hands moved to draw their weapons. They were still staring into their enemy's clear sea-green eyes.

Æ

What do you think of the shadow assassin?

Well, as before I am so very, very sorry about the untimely discrepancy between Toplap and myself. In addition, I am sorry about the shifting tone in this chapter. I just need to write myself out of this corner, then the story will pick up pretty quickly.

Reviews are my lifeblood. I write faster if I know what my readers think of my stories: what they enjoy and what they think I can do better. As of now, are you enjoying this or is it lacking something? I care what you guys have to say: if Menma is drastically out-of-character, or the shadow assassin's name needs to be announced [it's coming: he's had a name since the beginning], than just tell me. I always thank reviewers by name [by message as well, when possible].

Oh, and if anyone wants to team-write this story, I am open to such ideas. PM me and we will talk.

**Challenge:** Whoever can guess which real-world book character was the inspiration for Menma's rather off-base ideas about Kitty-boy gets a prize.

Here is the description again: "_He was not sure what he had expected to see: maybe a twisted cadaver stitched together from a kaleidoscope of different skin tones taken from shinobi and common citizens alike ..._"

See you next chapter!


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